Web Hosting Backups

[Shaun34]

It is always better to invest in a web hosting company that offers backup solution for your web site. The following are some of the common reasons that confirm the need of web hosting backup plans.

* In case the hard drive of your server machine fails due to any reason.
* Web hosting backups is necessary in case you delete all your data accidentally, or if the database gets infected by any virus.
* Often many people ignore the necessity of keeping a back up of their server hard drive while reloading an operation system.
* Web hosting backups are absolutely essential if you are using a shared server. There are many instances where a single account of a shared hosting server has crashed the entire server.
* Keeping back ups for web hosting are also essential if you are planning to change your web hosting service provider.

[BELLonline]

Very true, it's surprising how many people underestimate the value of backups until it's too late! A good host should do daily backups of client accounts.

It's also useful when a customer falls behind on payments and accidentally gets their website terminated, you can then restore them from a backup and it looks good to the customer.

[kinah1]

you can then restore them from a backup.

[harryfrm]

How can we take a backup from one account to another account.

[alanwalters]

How can we take a backup from one account to another account.

Just try to use FXP, it is very convenient .

[Rastet123]

Why Website Hosting Backups Matter

First, a true story from my own personal web hosting experience. I was working at a web hosting company many years ago. The company had acquired various hosting brands and was consolidating and migrating customers from various disparate systems onto a single platform. There was a brand in this migration process that consisted of a single server for resellers. This was pretty much the oldest server on the planet - the previous company hadn’t really maintained the brand and so the decision was made to sunset (read kill) the brand. So the communication process started.

The company repeatedly begged the resellers on this particular server to migrate to a different account plan. Incentives were given, special offers tendered - but still there remained the resolute few who - for whatever the reason - simply refused to migrate. As you would expect, that fateful day arrived when something absolutely catastrophic occurred with the server. Now of course the host had no intention of restoring the server, and once again simply went about damage control and helped clients set up their accounts onto new servers.

So my friend was working in a cubicle around the way from me and I could here him talking to one of the resellers whose data had been on that server. He kept speaking in reassuring terms for what seemed like a really long time. The call finally ended, and my friend just had this very bewildered look on his face. I asked him what happened. ”That guy had all his data on that server. I told him that the data was lost, and suggested that he restore his customer sites from his backups. He said that he didn’t have any backups and that his business was finished…then he started crying.”

Here is another true story - not from many years ago - but from a couple of days ago.

The Register is reporting that Vaserv.com, a UK based web hosting company, suffered a large scale malicious attack that completely destroyed the data of as many as 100,000 websites on Sunday. According to the report the hackers were able to gain root access to the company’s system, by exploiting a critical vulnerability in HyperVM, a virtualization application made by a company called LXLabs. Here’s the real tragedy - The Register went on to state that ”Some 50 percent of Vaserv’s customers signed up for unmanaged service, which doesn’t include data backup. It remains unclear of those website owners will ever be able to retrieve their lost data. As a result, at least half the websites that were hosted on the site remain offline.”

No matter what the circumstance that leads to data corruption or loss, there is simply no substitute for consistent and robust backups of your data. Here are 3 simple rules to follow if you want your websites and data to survive a disaster.

1. Backup your data, and do it regularly (daily if you can, weekly if you can’t). Clearly an automated mechanism is best.

2. Offsite backups are best. These are backups that are physically and geographically separated from the problems that lead to data loss.

3. Never use a web hosting solution that doesn’t include some form of backup.

[BELLonline]

The Register is reporting that Vaserv.com, a UK based web hosting company, suffered a large scale malicious attack that completely destroyed the data of as many as 100,000 websites on Sunday. According to the report the hackers were able to gain root access to the company’s system, by exploiting a critical vulnerability in HyperVM, a virtualization application made by a company called LXLabs.

I was one of the customers affected by that particular issue - and it just goes to show that you should never rely on a web host or server provider to make backups. You are the only person ultimately responsible for your data. My business WHMCS installation with all customer details, their plans and everything else was hosted on the VPS - if I hadn't kept backups then my business could have easily failed as I'd have no easy way of restoring the system. My most recent backup was from 1 day before so I was very glad about that.

Here’s the real tragedy - The Register went on to state that ”Some 50 percent of Vaserv’s customers signed up for unmanaged service, which doesn’t include data backup. It remains unclear of those website owners will ever be able to retrieve their lost data. As a result, at least half the websites that were hosted on the site remain offline.”

Actually, the 'real' tragedy was that the suicide of the LXLabs owner after the attack due to the loss of some big contracts - it makes the loss of a few websites look insignificant. It also resulted in VaServ being in a position where it had no choice but to be taken over by a larger company.

So anyone out there that hasn't backed up their website/server lately - DO IT NOW, IT COULD SAVE YOU BUSINESS.

[macklam]

Web hosting backups is a highly effective facility provided to website owners where they can restore their site in case it gets terminated due to some specific reason.

[markwright789]

Web hosting backups is a highly potent installation provided to website owners where they can reinstate their computer in example it gets terminated due to few specialised saneness.

[kameronmorgan014]

Web hosting backups is a highly utile artefact provided to website owners where they can repay their site in circumstance it gets terminated due to several precise present.

[Host4dost]

Yes one must have his/her web hosting backup.b'coz due to any type of failure you will be able to re-start with the back up,otherwise the whole hard work can be wasted so must have updated backup.

[hussyjack]

Even with backups of everything, it has taken several weeks to get all of the sites back up and running. The ecommerce websites were the highest priority, so they went back up first.

[WHUK]

Yes, the hosting provider who takes regular backups of their servers are usually preferred. Because client knows that even if any database is deleted or if his website gets hacked, he can ask his hosting provider to restore the latest backup and bring his website online again. If you do not want to rely on your Hosting provider, you can opt for a separate backup plan like R1 soft or Rsync or even take backups on your local machine.

[royking]

Re:

Web hosting backup solutions differs in price depending upon the function and its complexity. It is better to do a comparative research so as to get a good idea about all your options. There are several companies that will provide customized backup solutions depending upon your budget and requirements.

[Addie.B]

Web hosting providers mostly do take back-ups of their servers, but to avoid risks, its always better that we keep our own back-ups or opt for some back-up solution. Kepping back-ups proves to be beneficial if in case the server is facing any issues and is down.